Perform Cube Administration Tasks in Cube Designer

You can perform many cube administration tasks in cube designer.

• Delete Applications and Cubes in Cube Designer
• Unlock Objects in Cube Designer
• View Logs in Cube Designer
• Manage Applications Using EAS Lite in Cube Designer
• Reset a Dimension in Cube Designer
• Update Cubes Incrementally in Cube Designer
• Create a Cube from Tabular Data in Cube Designer
• Export Cubes to Application Workbooks in Cube Designer

Delete Applications and Cubes in Cube Designer

In Cube Designer, you can delete any application or cube that exists in Essbase. Deleting an application or cube cannot be undone.

1. In Excel, on the Cube Designer ribbon, select Admin tasks .
2. From the menu, select Delete Application or Delete Cube.
3. From the Delete Application or Delete Cube dialog box, select the application or cube you want to delete.

Unlock Objects in Cube Designer

Essbase uses a checkout facility for cube objects (such as calculation scripts and rules files). Objects are locked automatically when they are in use and the locks are deleted when they are no longer in use.

You can view and unlock objects, according to your security role. Users with the Service Admin role can unlock any object. Users without the Service Admin role can unlock only those objects that they locked.

To unlock an object in cube designer:

1. In Excel, on the cube designer ribbon, select Admin tasks
2. Select Unlock Essbase objects.
3. Enter your login credentials if prompted to do so.
4. Under Select an application, select the application containing the object you want to unlock.
5. Under Select a locked object, select the object you want to unlock.
6. Click Unlock.

View Logs in Cube Designer

In cube designer, you can view the platform log or an application log.

1. In Excel, on the cube designer ribbon, select Admin tasks
2. From the menu, select View Logs.
3. Select a log to view:
   • Select View Platform Log to view the log for the platform service.
   • Select View Application Log to view the log for an individual application.

Manage Applications Using EAS Lite in Cube Designer

You can select in cube designer which applications to manage in Essbase Administration Services (EAS) Lite.

Although the Essbase web interface is the modern administration interface that supports all current platform features, a lite version of Essbase Administration Services is a limited-support option for continued management of your applications if your organization isn't ready to adopt the new interface. This option is available only for Essbase 21c independent installations of Essbase.

See Use Essbase Administration Services Lite for more information about EAS Lite, and to learn how to set applications to EAS managed in cube designer.

Reset a Dimension in Cube Designer

To perform certain dimension editing operations while retaining all data using cube designer, you must use the Reset Dimension Incremental Mode on the dimension worksheet in the application workbook.

Using reset dimension clears the members from the dimension and then rebuilds them, retaining the data.

You must update the entire dimension when using reset dimension, otherwise members and data will be lost.

Use Reset Dimension for the following dimension editing operations:

• Re-order members
• Insert a new member in a specific location
• Remove members and maintain the shared members
• Move the members and retain the shared members
• Move parent members and have all the children move with them

Leave Allow Moves set to No, otherwise, you will not be able to build shared members.

Renaming members using this technique is not supported.

To perform a dimension reset in cube designer:

1. Open the application workbook.
2. On the cube designer ribbon, click Designer Panel .
3. In the designer panel, click To Sheet .
4. In the application workbook, select the dimension you want to reset.
5. In the designer panel, in the Incremental Mode drop-down menu, select Reset Dimension.
6. In the designer panel, select To Sheet .
7. In the application workbook, on the dimension sheet, make sure that Allow Moves is set to No.
8. Save the application workbook.
9. Rebuild the cube. See Create, Load, and Calculate the Cube in Create an Application and Cube in Cube Designer.

Update Cubes Incrementally in Cube Designer

Updating a cube is how you load dimensions and members to a cube outline using a data source and a rule file.

You can also use Essbase to add dimensions and members manually (see Creating and Updating Cubes from Tabular Data).

In an existing cube, you can incrementally update a dimension, or add a new one.

You cannot use Cube Designer to delete dimensions or rename members in an existing cube.

1. In Excel, on the Cube Designer ribbon, select Build Cube. .

2. Choose an Update Cube option from the Build Option menu.

   When an outline was changed by a dimension build, the database may be restructured. Each of these options specifies how data values are handled during restructures:

   1. Update Cube - Retain All Data

      All data values are preserved.

   2. Update Cube - Retain Input Data

      All blocks (both upper-and lower-level) that contain loaded data are preserved.

      This option applies only to block storage cubes.

   3. Update Cube - Retain Leaf Data

      Only leaf (level 0) values are preserved. If all data required for calculation resides in leaf members, then you should select this option. If selected, then all upper-level blocks are deleted before the cube is restructured. Therefore, the disk space required for restructuring is reduced, and calculation time is improved. When the cube is recalculated, the upper-level blocks are re-created.

   4. Update Cube - Remove All Data

      All data values are cleared.

      This option applies only to block storage cubes.

• Dimension build definitions are contained within the application workbook and automatically generate the necessary rules files. You do not select a rule file when building dimensions in Cube Designer.

• When making changes to user-defined attributes (UDAs) while updating a cube incrementally using Cube Designer and an application workbook, you must specify all the UDAs in the dimension sheet, both new ones you are adding and existing UDAs in the outline. If you specify some UDAs (such as those you are adding), but not all of them, those that are not specified are deleted.

• When incrementally adding a dimension to an existing cube using an application workbook, the data is automatically mapped to the new top member. There is not a way to choose a stored member to which to map the existing data. If the new dimension has a top member that is dynamic calc, the data is lost because dynamic members can’t store data.

  When using an application workbook to add a new dimension in which you want the top member to be dynamic calc, follow these steps:

  1. Add the new dimension with the top member as stored.
  2. Run a calc script to copy the data from the new top member into another stored member in that dimension.
  3. Change the top member to dynamic calc.

Create a Cube from Tabular Data in Cube Designer

This workflow uses two sample tabular data Excel files to demonstrate the concepts of intrinsic and forced-designation headers (hints). See Transform Tabular Data to Cubes.

1. In Excel, on the Cube Designer ribbon, click Catalog .
2. On the Essbase Files dialog box, under Catalog, select Gallery, then select a sample tabular data file:
   • Technical > Table Format > Sample_Table.xlsx: Intrinsic headers
   • Technical > Table Format > Unstr_Hints.xlsx: Forced-designation headers
3. Click Open.
4. On the Cube Designer ribbon, select Transform Data .
5. On the Transform Data dialog box, enter an application and cube name, if you want to change the default names that are prepopulated. If the application name already exists, you will not be able to preview data or build a new cube, so you will need to enter a new application name.
   The application name is based on the source file name without the extension and the cube name is based on the worksheet name.
   • Sample_Table.xlsx: Application name is Sample_Table and the cube name is Sales.
   • Unstr_Hints.xlsx: Application name is Unstr_Hints and the cube name is SpendHistory.
6. If you selected Sample_Table.xlsx, do not select Preview Data. Skip to step 8 to create the cube.
7. If you selected Unstr_Hints.xlsx, press Preview Data. The workbook is sent to Essbase for analysis and the relationships are returned for viewing.
   1. Using the tree view, you can drag and drop members (and their children) to different locations in the tree. This changes the default designations and by doing so, creates different dimension hierarchies, measure hierarchies, and skipped members than the default analysis provided. You can also right click on a member name and designate the property of the member: Generation, Attribute, Alias or UDA.
      In some cases, there is special behavior when you change members from one designation to another:

      • When you drag and drop a generation to a measure, all attributes, UDAs, and aliases of the source generation are also moved to measures.
      • When you drag a generation to Skipped, all attributes, UDAs, and aliases in that generation are also moved to Skipped.
      • Dragging and dropping a measure to another designation is only allowed if the measure has no formulas.
   2. If you do not want to save your changes, select Options and then select Reset to Original Header.
   3. If you want to change the cube type and the type of dimensions to be created, before deploying, select Options, and then select Cube Type. Select Hybrid BSO (block storage option) or ASO (aggregate storage option).
   4. You can guide the analysis to detect two kinds of designations: either measures and hierarchical dimensions, or measures, hierarchical dimensions, and attributes. Define these by selecting Options, then Cube Design, and then selecting one of the options. After you've made your selection, click Preview again.
      
      
      
      
8. When you are ready to create the cube, click Run.
9. When asked if you want to create the cube, click Yes.
10. (Optional) When asked if you want to see the cube job status, click Yes.
    
    
    
    
    The newly created application and cube are listed on the Applications home page in the Essbase web interface and are available in Cube Designer. Now that the cube has been created from the tabular data, you can export the cube to an application workbook.
11. On the Cube Designer ribbon, select Local , then select Export Cube to Application Workbook.
12. On the Export Cube to Application Workbook dialog box, select the application and cube, and then select Run .

To create a cube using the web interface, see Create and Update a Cube from Tabular Data.

Export Cubes to Application Workbooks in Cube Designer

In Cube Designer, you can export any cube that exists in Essbase.

1. Select the build method, either parent-child or generation format.
2. In Excel, on the Cube Designer ribbon, select Local , then select Export cube to application workbook.
3. On the Export Cube dialog box, select the application and cube that you want to export.
   • Select Include Data if you want input level data included in the application workbook.

     • In block storage cubes, if the size of the data is 400 MB or less, data is exported to the application workbook, on the Data worksheet. If the data size exceeds 400 MB, data is exported to a flat file named Cubename.txt, which is included in a file named Cubename.zip. The .zip file is created in the specified export directory if the export process is successful.

     • In aggregate storage cubes, regardless of the size of the data, it is always exported to a flat file named Cubename.txt, which is included in a file named Cubename.zip. The .zip file is created in the specified export directory if the export process is successful.

   • Select Include Calculation Scripts if you want calculation scripts in your block storage cube included in the application workbook.

     Aggregate storage cubes do not have calculation scripts.

   • Select Include Member IDs if you want to include Member IDs on the dimension sheets in the application workbook.
   
   

   

   
   
4. Click Run.
5. When the export is completed, click OK.
   The application workbook is saved to the local folder location: C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Oracle\smartview\DBX. Because it is saved to the local folder location, you can open it using the Local icon on the Cube Designer ribbon.

The exported application workbook can be imported to Essbase. See these topics:

• Create a Cube from an Application Workbook

• Create a Cube from a Local Application Workbook in Cube Designer